PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "This was a sad commentary on one individual. Since the Driskell Report was written, the wrongful convictions engineered by Mr. Dangerfield have only increased. Mr. Dangerfield must have known of systemic racism towards the Indigenous in the Winnipeg Police Service. He surely knew Officers King, Murdoch, Varey and Scott well. He was experienced enough to see the paucity of the case against the four men. Without their confessions, he had no case. But on March 8, 1976, he wrote a letter to the Chief Constable that suggests he too shared the prejudices of the Winnipeg Police Service. He wrote: (Read passage from letter below. HL;
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FILING: (Court of King's Bench: Manitoba: From 'The case for Mr. Anderson and Mr. Woodhouse: 'The Case for Mr. Anderson and Mr. Woodhouse: innocence Canada lawyers Lawyers Jerome Kennedy KC, James Lockyer and Pamela Zbarsky;
GIST: "George Dangerfield as Prosecutor: For many years, Innocence Canada has been uncovering wrongful convictions whose victims were prosecuted by George Dangerfield. These prosecutions include: The wrongful conviction of Thomas Sophonow; The wrongful conviction of James Driskell; The wrongful conviction of Kyle Unger; and The wrongful conviction of Frank Ostrowski. To this list can now be added the names of Brian Anderson and Allan Woodhouse. In addition, in February of this year the Minister referred Robert Sanderson’s case to the Court of Appeal, another George Dangerfield prosecution. No other prosecutor in Canada has a record that approaches that of Mr. Dangerfield, and it defies coincidence. In all his wrongful convictions, he relied on unsavoury witnesses and failed to make proper disclosure. In the Driskell Inquiry Report, Commissioner LeSage wrote that: In light of [Mr. Dangerfield’s] involvement in the Driskell and [other] cases, I recommend that if there are similar cases of his in which people come forward claiming wrongful conviction, that the Manitoba Justice direct an independent external review of those cases. This was a sad commentary on one individual. Since the Driskell Report was written, the wrongful convictions engineered by Mr. Dangerfield have only increased. Mr. Dangerfield must have known of systemic racism towards the Indigenous in the Winnipeg Police Service. He surely knew Officers King, Murdoch, Varey and Scott well. He was experienced enough to see the paucity of the case against the four men. Without their confessions, he had no case. But on March 8, 1976, he wrote a letter to the Chief Constable that suggests he too shared the prejudices of the Winnipeg Police Service. He wrote: As you will know by now due to the excellent work of members of your police force Clarence Woodhouse, Brian Anderson and Allan Woodhouse are serving life sentences for murder. Russell Woodhouse is serving a ten year sentence for manslaughter. These sentences were imposed following their conviction in the matter of the death of Ting Fong Chan. I am enclosing herewith three copies of police reports, number 11873/73/A, provided to our Department during the course of the trial. May I take this opportunity to say once again how tremendously impressed I was with the work of the members of your police force connected with this case. Not only was their investigative work complete and comprehensive but they gave their evidence effectively, and when required performed extra duties which made the prosecution of this case so much easier. I would like to single out for special mention Detectives King and Murdoch, Varey and Scott for the excellent way in which they gave their evidence in respect of the taking of the statements. Without the statements this case would have been lost entirely. I would like to also commend Detective Megarry and DePouroq for their investigative work at the scene of the crime and the manner in which they explained it to the jury. Everyone connected with this case did his part extremely well. These are far too many police officers to name them all individually but even those whose part may at first glance seemed to be small deserve special mention. I am referring to Detective Vandergraaf and Taylor whose unearthing of the witness, Tetu, led to the first real break in the discovery of the people responsible. Please convey my gratitude to the members of your force who took part in this prosecution. (emphasis added);"
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(EXCELLENT BACKGROUND): RELATED STORY: CBC NEWS: "Retired prosecutor George Dangerfield behind 4 high-profile quashed murder convictions in Manitoba, published on May 29, 2018;
'I don't know his motivation,' says defence lawyer who faced Crown attorney George Dangerfield in court'
PHOTO CAPTION: "Now-retired Crown prosecutor George Dangerfield presided over the murder convictions of four Manitoba men. Two have since been overturned and charges quashed on a third. (The Fifth Estate/CBC)
GIST: "The storied Manitoba prosecutor behind the recently set aside murder conviction of Frank Ostrowski was also responsible for three other murder convictions which were eventually overturned.
The Manitoba Court of Appeal stated on Nov. 27 that the 1987 conviction against Frank Ostrowski should be set aside — the fourth murder conviction George Dangerfield's name is directly linked to that has been reversed in the province.
In addition to Ostrowski, Dangerfield was responsible for putting Thomas Sophonow, James Driskell, and Kyle Unger behind bars.
In each of those cases, within a decade, the convictions began to unravel with revelations of the Crown withholding of crucial evidence, bargains and deals with jailhouse informants, questionable testimony and coerced confessions.
"I thought he was a friend of mine. What can I say?" veteran Winnipeg defence lawyer Greg Brodsky said of Dangerfield in May 2018, when Crown lawyers first conceded that Ostrowski's conviction could not stand.
"I don't know his motivation for not turning over the material or correcting witnesses.”
'Obligation is on everybody'
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in a landmark 1991 decision that the Crown must provide the defence with all relevant evidence, even if it hurts their case.
Brodsky said he once held Dangerfield in high esteem and faced off against him in the murder trials against Driskell and Sophonow.
Dangerfield, 84, reportedly now lives in Vancouver. During his appearance at the Manitoba Court of Appeal last year, he said he suffered a stroke three years ago and suffers from aphasia, a language impairment.
Back in May, Brodsky said he didn't believe all the blame should be cast on Dangerfield.
"The obligation is on everybody in the department to make discourse," he said.
Frank Ostrowski
Convicted for ordering the killing of drug dealer Robert Nieman in 1986, Ostrowski, a former hair stylist turned drug dealer, always maintained his innocence.
In 2009, the federal Justice Department began reviewing Ostrowski's case as a possible wrongful conviction and he was released on bail after 23 years in jail. His freedom, however, was limited and he lived under a number of conditions.
During a hearing that year, Ostrowski's lawyers argued a key witness at the original trial was given a sweetheart deal that shaped his testimony against their client.
Matthew Lovelace was facing separate charges of cocaine possession when he testified. The Crown stayed the charges against Lovelace a few months after Ostrowski's conviction.
It was a deal Ostrowski's lawyers were not informed about.
Frank Ostrowski said in November 2018 he's relieved the finally have his 1987 murder conviction overturned by Manitoba's Court of Appeal. (Steve Lambert/Canadian Press)
In 2014, then-Minister of Justice Peter MacKay determined there was "a reasonable basis to conclude that a miscarriage of justice likely occurred" in Ostrowski's conviction. And in February 2017, the Court of Appeal began reviewing 30-year-old conviction.
The Nov. 27 decision removes all of the conditions first put on Ostrowski's freedom in 2009.
It calls for a judicial stay of proceedings but stops short of acquitting him.
At the crux of Ostrowski's appeal was the deal with Lovelance and a report from an officer that contradicted his testimony.
The report said Winnipeg police received a suggestion a "hit" had been ordered but the officer wrote that it wasn't against Nieman, the man Ostrowski was convicted of killing. That evidence was exposed in hearings held in late 2016 and early 2017 at the Manitoba Court of Appeal.
The appeal court found the Crown's failure to disclose this evidence impaired Ostrowski's defence, because his lawyer could have used it to challenge the credibility of important details in the case against him.
However, the decision goes on to say that this does not render the witness's testimony totally unreliable, and that a jury could still reasonably find Ostrowski guilty if a new trial were ordered.
The report suggests, though, that given the amount of time that has passed and the years Ostrowski spent behind bars, no new trial should be called at this time.
Thomas Sophonow
After three trials, two appeals and almost four years in jail, Thomas Sophonow was exonerated in 2000 of the 1981 murder of Barbara Stoppel.
He was convicted of brutally strangling the 16-year-old waitress at the Winnipeg doughnut shop where she worked.
The conviction was based in part on a confession Sophonow allegedly gave to a man in jail.
The Crown, however, never revealed that the jailhouse informant bargained for charges against him to be dropped.
Dangerfield defended his use of the jail informant, Thomas Cheng, in the inquiry, even though he knew his witness couldn't be trusted.
The Crown stayed Cheng's deportation charges in exchange for his testimony. The jury was never told that Cheng admitted in a polygraph test that his main reason for testifying was to have his charges stayed.
"The ends justified the means, basically," Sophonow told CBC's The Fifth Estate in a 2010 interview. "Whatever has to be done, a conviction will prevail.”
Kyle Unger
The only physical evidence linking Kyle Unger to the 1990 killing of a teenage girl at a rural Manitoba music festival was a strand of hair.
Years after his 1992 conviction, DNA testing found the hair wasn't his.
The Crown once again relied on an in-custody informer who claimed that Unger returned to his cell and confessed to the slaying of 16-year-old Brigitte Grenier, but the defence proved that Unger was not present at the time.
The most damning evidence against Unger was a confession obtained by an undercover police operation, promising him a role in a gang if he confessed to his role in a crime.
At the time of his acquittal, Unger said he admitted to slaying Brigitte Grenier because he was "young, naive and desperate for money."
Unger, however, got several facts wrong in his "confession." He mentioned, for example, a bridge at the concert site that was actually built several months after the teenager's death.
In 2009, the federal justice minister ordered a new trial for Unger, but the Manitoba Crown ultimately decided that it did not have enough evidence for a retrial. In October 2009, Unger was acquitted.
James Driskell
James Driskell was convicted of the murder of Perry Dean Harder in Winnipeg in 1990, based in part on testimony from a witness who was paid tens of thousands of dollars in expense payments and negotiated a secret immunity deal on an arson charge in exchange for his participation.
Driskell's conviction was quashed in 2005, after he had spent 12 years in prison.
At a 2006 inquiry into Driskell's wrongful conviction, Dangerfield testified that he knew some of the testimony from his key witness, Ray Zanidean, was false.
When asked why he didn't correct his witness's sworn testimony, Dangerfield replied that he didn't know.
"You had a duty to get to the bottom of this and find out the true facts and you didn't do it, isn't that correct?" counsel for the commission of inquiry Michael Code asked Dangerfield.
"I don't know what prompted me to leave that matter untouched," Dangerfield said, sighing.
The inquiry's final report, released in February 2007, said the jury in Driskell's trial was "seriously misled" on issues including the reliability of a key Crown witness.
The report also said the failure of the Crown to disclose information to the defence was "careless indifference."
The entire story can be read at:
george-dangerfield-blaming-wrong-man-murder-1.4682564
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices.
Lawyer Radha Natarajan;
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-1234880143/
